Building a successful freelance writing business means setting your own hours, choosing your own clients, and by extension, determining how much money you make. Unfortunately, no matter how successful your freelance writing business is, you cannot earn your way to your own freelance writer health insurance policy. Finding affordable health insurance for self-employed people is tricky.
How To Get Health Insurance as a Freelance Writer
I’m going to start by saying if you have a spouse, and they have a health insurance plan through work, it is almost certainly better than individual health insurance you can find and afford. The best way to compare health insurance plans is to get the information from your spouse’s health insurance plan, go through the terms, and understand it. Use that as your baseline. If any self-employed insurance is better than your spouse plan, then go ahead and look deeper. Otherwise, get on your spouse’s health insurance.
Also, if you happen to be a young freelance writer looking for health insurance, remember that thanks to what is left of Obamacare, you can be on your parent’s health insurance until you are 26 years old. Do that. Do that especially if you have parents who have climbed the corporate ladder into a nice office job.
Now, what if you don’t have a spouse with sweet health insurance and you are over 26 and you are a freelancer?
Freelancer Union Health Insurance Plans
I was already a freelance writer when someone started the Freelancers Union and proclaimed that they would figure out how to get health care for freelancers.
Is Freelancers Union Legit?
I didn’t pay much attention because I didn’t believe they could do it. I mention this because these people have been kicking around for YEARS so if Freelancers Union is a scam, it is a very long con and nobody has heard about it.
Is Freelancers Union Health Insurance Legit?
Yes, because they aren’t really Freelancers Union health insurance plans. They are health insurance company’s plans that have agreed to tie into Freelancers Union in some way. They tend to be state specific, which means a lot of these plans are regular individual health insurance plans from a health insurance marketplace. In fact, if you pay attention, you’ll see that the Freelancers Union Insurance Agency only does dental plans and only in some states.
Freelancers Union negotiates discounts for its members, kind of like how AARP negotiates discounts for everything like hotels and car rentals. That means that these Freelancers Union health plans have all the same rules as Affordable Care Act health plans including an open enrollment period. This year, it is November 2022 to January 15, 2023.
For example, the health care plan that pops up when I put in Colorado as where I live is Oscar Health Plans. I don’t know a damn thing about Oscar Health Care, but I know both HCPF and the Colorado Insurance Commissioner has to OK them to run in Colorado.
Once you click Shop Oscar Plans, you go to the Oscar Health Insurance website, after you enter in some information so that the Freelancers Union can get a commission or finder’s fee, or something. My understanding is that you also get a discount, but I didn’t verify that because I’m not going to enter my info.
Individual Freelance Writer Health Insurance
Of course, the whole point of the Affordable Health Care Act was to let individuals get health care without having to settle for whatever health care plan their boss wanted them to have. This should be a no brainer to support, but politics in America is about nothing more than fighting the other political party. So, while the Affordable Health Care Act was really close to the plan created by the very conservative Heritage Foundation, Republicans hated it because it was a Democrat who was President. If you wonder why the Republicans had to stop saying, “repeal and replace,” it is because there is really no other way to reform American health care without going full liberal and just having the government give Medicare to everyone.
What is left of the Affordable Care Act still offers some health insurance on individual markets run by the individual states. You can go to HealthCare.gov to find the marketplace for your state. If your site didn’t make its own marketplace you can use the one from the Feds. I was going to look into it more for you, fellow freelancers, but they want all my info, and a lock of my hair before I can see the plans, so you’ll just have to do it yourself.
Freelance Writer Health Insurance Tax Credits and Deductions
I know what you are thinking. “Hey, I’m a freelance writer, but I’m also a small business so can I get sweet health insurance?”
Alas, the answer is no. While health insurance is often linked to your employer, it isn’t business health insurance so much as group health insurance, and your group of one isn’t going to cut it.
Nothing beats having quality, low-cost health insurance, but if you can’t get that, health insurance tax credits are better than a sharp stick in the eye.
If you run your freelance writing business as self-employed and file a Schedule C for taxes, you can likely deduct your health insurance premiums. You might also be able to get a tax deduction for your medical expenses if they are high enough.